REX Manager User Guide

Introduction

Ok, so you've followed the Quickstart guide, and got your REX installed, and you want to get the most out of your unit. Or maybe you are having problems, and need further guidance. This guide will cover both topics. Before you begin, however, make sure that you have properly installed REX as per the installation instructions. If you cannot insatll REX due to some unforseen issue, the second half of this guide will walk you through the steps to re-flashing your REX chip.

USING REX

Using your new REX is very simple. Upon installation, a file called 'REXMGR.BA' is installed. Simply cursor over to the REX manager program, and press enter. After a very brief loading screen, you will be greeted with the REX navigator program, which allows you to move between the three main menu catagories, RAM, ROM, and OS.

Ok, now that you've got a cheat sheet in front of you, let's play around and see what we can do. First off, you should see (if you haven't touched anything) a screen that looks like this (block, date and time will differ):

Let's have a look. In the upper left is the version number for the REX firmware, to the right, tthe Group text indicates that we are looking at RAM images, and idnicates that we can change this by pressing <TAB>. The upper right indicates free blocks.

Below, we get to the important stuff. You see a RAM image called 'backup'. This is the built in default RAM image, which you can refresh at anytime by SAVEing to it. Next to it is a blank block '------'. Below this are the date and time, and the standard Model 100/102 Function key menu, as detailed above.

Now go ahead and hit <TAB>. The screen changes to the ROM group, as indicated up top. This should show you the active TS-DOS ROM block(indicated by the asterix), and a blank block of empty space '------'.Tabbing again will show you the OS menu, which just shows a blank block. This grouping is for special option roms that operate independantly from the main ROM, like CP/M for example. A seperate entry on the wiki will detail this at a later date.

Let's tab back to the RAM menu. This is where you will save, create, switch to and load you RAM states. Basically, these are copies of the entire 32k Model 100 memory (assuming you have that much) to REX's flash memory. This allows you to back up the contents of memory, and to have multiple blocks of saved memory you can switch between. For example, my Model 102 has a block for use with Ultimate ROM 2, a block for work, for Multiplan, and a block reserved for an ongoing game of Portal. This feature allows you to easily swap out the contents of memory to and from REX, as well as your storage device.

Let's try it. Cursor over to the '------' field and hit [ENTER]. REX asks you 'Create new backup (Y/N)?'. Hit 'Y' and REX will ask you 'New Name?', this being the name your new block will be listed as. Enter a six character name, and hit [ENTER] again. After a few seconds, REX will create a new RAM block with the current contents of your Model 100's memory, and selecting the new block as the active one, denoted by a '*'. Simple, no?

To switch to another image, just cursor to it and hit [ENTER], and the manager program will install that block to memory, completely replacing it's contents. Killing an image is just as easy. Just cursor over to it and hit the [F4] key and confirm. The block will be deleted from memory, and that particular 32k chunk of flash will be open for future use. Note that REX can have a total of 16 blocks in use, of any mixture of ROM/RAM or OS files.

Now, if you want to SAVE or LOAD an image from your TPDD compatible device, simply move to a used block and hit [F2] to save, and to an empty ('------') block and hit [F2] to load. Note that to load to load a file from storage to a block currently in use, you must kill that block (see above)first. Before you save or load, make sure that your TPDD device, whether NADSbox, a TPDD, or one of the PC<->M100 file programs is running and 'visible' to REX. If it's not, than the file operation will time out.

Now hit [TAB] again, and let's delve into the real power of REX, switching Option ROM images. Let me give you an example of why this is such a big deal. I'll use myself as an example. I regularly use (as I am right now) the Ultimate ROM II for word processing and the occasional BASIC program, because I love the 60 column font option. In the past, this caused one very annoying problem: using URII occupied my optionROM socket, and prevented me from using a real TS-DOS ROM. I had to choose between Teeny (which is small but very basic and it must be load via serial cable from a PC) and the RAM loaded URII TS-DOS, which was buggy, unreliable, and a memory hog. Not so good. With REX, those days are over. I user URII to write my articles. When I'm done, I simply run REXMGR, and swap out URII with TS-DOS. Two seconds later (it's that fast), and I'm in TS-DOS and I save the file to my NADSbox's flash card. Then, I swap back to UR-II and keep writing, all of which is faster than loading URIIs crappy RAM based TS-DOS. Pretty useful, huh?

It's also easy. First off, let's get you set up with all of the current option ROM files that work with REX. You'll find these readily available on the Wiki as a zipped file. Download that, and unzip it to your TPDD device of choice, whether PC or NADSbox. Make sure that if you are using something that uses directories (my NADSbox for example, has several sub directories for stories, poetry etc), that you have switched to the directory the option ROM files are in.

What's that, you say? You don't know how? We'll, let's use it as practice. You should be in the ROM group of theREX manager program. If you are not, get there now. See the block lablelled 'TS-DOS'? Select it and hit [ENTER]. REX will ask you 'Install Option ROM (Y/N)?'. Hit [Y], and a second or two later, you will be in TS-DOS. How's that for simple? Go ahead and switch to your TPDD via [F4] (in TS-DOS) and select the directory you unzipped those option ROM files to and [F8] to exit, and re-run REXMGR. [TAB] back to the ROM group, and select the blank '------' block. See how the menu changes from SAVE to LOAD for the [F2] key? That means you are ready to go.

Hit [F2] now. REX will ask you the name of the optionROM file you want to load. Let's use my favorite Ultimate ROM II, so go ahead and type 'UR2100', which is the file name for the ultimate ROM. REX will tell you to hit any key when your TPDD drive is ready, so when it is, hit [SPACE]. If you've followed the above directions, then thirty seconds or so later, you will have a new block of memory named after the Option ROM you just loaded. Switch to it by selecting it and hitting [ENTER]. Deleting blocks is identical to deleting RAM blocks, as detailed above. You can also save an option ROM to disk by selecting a used block and hitting [F2].

That's it! You should now know enough to set up all of the ROM images you like to use, and to make RAM banks storing different files in memory, however you like. You'll find that REX makes Model 100 computing truly useful again. The ability to switch , on the fly, to whatever ROM or RAM bank you need a simply indispensable tool. For a writer like me, owning the one-two punch of a REX combined with a NADSbox maked the Model 100 or 102 the most bulletproof, long lasting, foolproof solution for simple text editing on the go. I think you'll find it is the same for you.

In addition, the features that you see now are only the beginning. In the future, ROMS for FORTH, Modified operating systems (such as fixes for lomem, Y2K etc), and even a possible CP/M OS for the Model 100 are in the works, so stay tuned. Steve thinks it will be a couple of years before the potential of REX is truly realized. It's the pushbutton world of tomorrow, custom built for yesterdays best laptop.